It is common practice to produce a variety of electrical components, such as heat or pressure sensors, indicator lights, switches, relays, and so on, with two relatively closely spaced prongs extending from the component. The manufacturer using the component connects wires of required lengths to the prongs prior to installing the component in the equipment being produced and then connects the free ends of the wires into the circuitry of the equipment. The manufacturing operations required to connect the wires to the component prongs are quite often reltively slow, expensive and unsatisfactory, for the reason that it is customary to handle each component individually and connect the wires to the component prongs by soldering, or by crimping operations which require manual handling.
The present invention is directed to the achievement of improved manufacturing methods in which a high degree of automation is achieved in connecting wires to component prongs. The invention is further directed to the achievement of a strip of splicing devices which can be used in automated manufacturing operations in which wires are connected to component prongs.
The practice of the invention requires the use of a continuous strip of specialized stamped and formed connecting means. The strip comprises a carrier strip having a plurality of sets of splicing devices extending from one of its side edges. Each set of splicing devices comprises first and second splicing devices which are similar to each other and which are symmetrical with respect to an axis of symmetry that extends medially between the first and second splicing devices. Each splicing device has a U-shaped wire crimp portion which is adjacent to the carrier strip, an intermediate connecting transition portion which extends from the wire crimp portion away from the carrier strip, and a prong crimp portion which is spaced from the carrier strip and is on the end of the transition portion. The prong crimp portions have a generally J-shaped cross section and are oriented as mirror images of each other with the low sidewalls of the J-shaped cross section being adjacent to the axis of symmetry. The transition portions of the first and second splicing devices extend obliquely and convergently from the wire crimp portions towards the axis of symmetry so that the prong crimp portions are spaced apart by a lesser distance than are the wire crimp portions.
In use, the strip is first fed to a first crimping press in which the prongs of the components are connected to the prong crimp portions by crimping the prong crimp portions of each set onto the prongs of a component. This manufacturing operation produces a continuous composite strip consisting of the connecting means strip with the components carrier thereon. This composite strip can be trans-shipped if required on a reel to a second apparatus in which the wire crimp portions of each set are crimped onto wires and separated from the carrier strip to produce the terminated component having wires extending therefrom.